This was a fairly uneventful knit. The pattern is clear and easy to follow, so it was just miles of stockinette as I made my way through. I made it a shorter as I don’t have as many cardigans that work well with the skirts I tend to wear at my natural waist, so I thought I’d make this one fit that bill. I don’t mind how it looks with a longer tee, either. This did leave quite a bit of the skein leftover though.

As suspected, I preferred the reverse stockinette side. I made sure to sew in my ends in carefully so they wouldn’t be visible from either side, and I picked up stitches for the collar 2 stitches in to create a tidy ‘visible seam’ look. This is what I’m most proud of in this knit. I also did a sewn tubular bind off. It’s a bit of work, but it really makes the finished product feel polished, you know?

I would absolutely use this pattern again. It makes a very wearable cardigan. Next time, I’d probably opt for a slightly longer cardigan.

Like this:

Let’s talk sweaters, guys. I’ve got an itch. I want to start a sweater, but I can’t decide which one! Let’s look at options, hey?

I’ve got this beautiful angora/wool/cashmere blend that I bought at Loop in London. DK weight, 1488 yds. At the moment I’m fairly in love with the idea of Sous sous by Norah Gaughin for this yarn.

I would probably omit the hi-lo hem, because with it, I think this will get kind of dated. Without it, this is timeless. A little wide, lending drape to a textured sweater with a lovely center focal piece.

Speaking of Brooklyn Tweed, I’ve had these two colors of Loft for almost 3 years now with the same idea all this time. I want to recreate my favorite j crew breton, in sweater form. Here it is from before it was toooo dead to wear in public:

Boat neck, hip length, three quarter sleeves, gentle drapey a-line. Total Classic. Yup, capital ‘C’. I’d probably knit this flat, in pieces, and seam it together, using the original for measurements. The thing about this one is that I’ve never dealt with any patterns with sleeves like this… I’d have to be ready for a lot of trial and error to get this right, I think.

And finally, this vintage stash of Pingouin Confort made it’s way to me. Wool, acrylic, mohair. It’ll be long lasting. Probably won’t be my favorite to knit with, but it will be fine for wearing. Sport weight, somewhere in the arena of 1300 yards.

This yarn is allll set to recreate one of my very favorites:

Garment House’s Downton Sweater. So classic, so contemporary. I still feel swoony every time I look at this. Hers is a larger gauge, which I might be able to match with the yarn held double. Or I could leave it as is and make a more delicately gauged version of this sweater.

I’ll have the poll open for a week. Sunday, March 15 at midnight, we’ll see who the winner is!

Like this:

Coming up on the anniversary of my trip to Ireland has me thinking about it more than usual. I will say, however, that I think of this trip very very frequently. I had such an excellent and amazing time. I would go back to Ireland tomorrow. I’d go back to Ireland last month. I was ready to go back to Ireland as soon as I’d recovered from jet lag.

This will be a bit of a massive post, kind of like my post on Bristol. There were many things that I don’t need to go as far into detail about, but you might like to know about!

Avoca– a beautiful shop with a cafe on the top floor. Avoca is probably historically most known for their woven wool items, as I believe they started as a mill. Their blankets were incredible, bright and modern but totally classic at the same time. They sell many other things, I coveted all of their womens clothing but even on my tourist budget (much more liberal than usual) it was a stretch. We ate a delicious lunch here and purchased a few small things. This is a chain, I know there are several more locations throughout Ireland.

Like this:

I’m just going to rip the band-off and start with the bad news, okay? Okay?

If you follow me on any form of social media, you’ll already know that our sweet little Baiza is no longer with us. She hadn’t really been well all winter. And we miss her terribly. She was so sweet and cuddly, excellent company and she always made me laugh.

This is the only place I haven’t specifically mentioned it, and it was starting to weigh on me. Okay. I’m really sorry to have started off with bad news, but here, let me distract you with other things. It’s the same technique I’ve been using for myself.

The crochet blanket: is all seamed together! It is a thing of beauty! It’s stalled again for the moment while I figure out some kind of edging situation. I’m leaning towards something like this, only… I’m not terribly excited about the idea of making over a dozen half-hexagons. Not least because the main tutorial everyone seems to reference has broken photo links, giving me NO visual cues to figure it out from. So I was going to try to modify the crochet edging I linked to flesh out the edges a little? Maybe?

We’ve been doing small bits and pieces of filming! And one of those pieces required super ’70’s glasses! Which, ironically, are very similar to a pair Jake had when he was a teeny tiny kid. I kind of wish I had a picture of that so I could share it with you… He’s probably happier that I don’t. ^_^

I got to see/meet Jason Segel! He was at ALA Midwinter, talking up a book he wrote. We all have those actors/pop stars/etc that we kind of secretly feel we’d be best friends with if only we knew them in real life, right? Well, Jason Segel is one of mine. He has always seemed like a really chill, funny guy, with pockets of nerdiness, and just really comfortable with who he is. So I was quite excited, and a bit nervous to meet him. In the end it was super brief, but I was actually really impressed with how present and invested he seemed with everybody who waited in line to meet him. That’s quite a skill all on it’s own. I think my people skills would dry up after about five people.

Jason Segel did agree to do an ‘update’ shout with me, though! That is visible just below:

Due to filming, and ALA Midwinter, I’ve been traveling all around neighborhoods in Chicago I don’t normally get to, which just fills me with an appreciation for how big and diverse it is, as well as pretty from almost any angle. I love it when the Sears Tower peeks out from behind things, perfectly framed.

I went on a tear of making tacos with ground turkey, which was delicious! Tacos, though… So much chopping! So many dishes to wash.

I’ve had this bamboo sock yarn for years. I loved the bright little polka dots in it, but never really got up a solid enough concept to give me any impetus to knit with it. Until! I decided a little stockinette version of a February Baby Sweater would just about be the cutest thing. Which got me so excited I cast on and finished it within a few days. Now I need to buy buttons and snaps! I’ve made this before, though never with the intended lace. My all time favorite version means that the stockinette version kind of became my default version.

A flower under my care bloomed! And not some leftover from the last time bloom, a full year after I got it! Maybe someday I’ll actually be able to take care of plants for real!

Well, the good news is: I’ve been working on some more blog posts. So you might actually get some regular posts out of me for a little while!